Tell Me, Did it All Burn?
by ilosttheimpalainthetardis
Summary: Rose Mantry is lost. She has a key, but she doesn't know what it unlocks. Until a strange man with a blue box turns up at her doorstep and tells her news that she'll never forget. But there's something wrong with her. It's going to destroy her if she and the Doctor don't find it soon enough to stop it. AU set after TEoT where he doesn't regenerate, more inside.


**Author's Note: This story actually doesn't belong to me. I don't know if Katie will ever find this, but she prompted me on Omegle, and I just really wanted to continue the story. It was a really great idea, and it wouldn't leave me, so I just had to publish it. This is an AU set right after the End of Time where he doesn't regenerate, but his TARDIS starts flying somewhere random to find the OC, Rose. Of course, I can't say much more, for that would spoil the story, wouldn't it? Happy reading!**

* * *

She dreamed of a man in a suit with a blue box, about to say that she loved him, but woke too soon. A noise outside distracted her, but she noticed something heavy, substantial in her hand. She had a key in her grasp. It wasn't big, and had the oddest ridges. Rubbing her finger over it, she felt a nick by the hole in the key where you would tie a ribbon. The oddest thing was that the key was glowing. It looked like it was on fire, but it was cool to the touch.

The noise outside grew persistent, and she looked up from the key. Walking to the window, she found the blue box. _The_ blue box. The one she saw in her dreams. Before she could do anything other than gasp, a man popped out of the box.

The Doctor whacked his doors open, staggering out. "Why! Hello! I would say, I don't know where I am, and I suppose I don't care, but I would wonder, where am I?"

"Sir, are you lost?" Rose was quite confused.

"Actually, in a way, yes," He nods to himself, as if assuring himself that he's actually lost, and smiles to himself. "Oh, I forgot to ask, who are you?"

"I'm Rose, Rose Mantry,"

"Hello Rose! Well, I used to have a friend named Rose," He seemed to droop for the slightest bit of time, and then straightened up again. "Sorry, where am I?"

"You're in London! How do you not know that? And what _are_ you doing in my garden?"

"Well, I'm in London, yes? So, what year is it?"

"1864" Rose's neck began to ache from leaning out the window too much, and she called down, "Hold on there, I'll come down now," She shimmied down the vine underneath her window, not bothering to change out of her nightgown.

"Why are you here so late at night?" She looked up to the immense clock that was known as Big Ben. "It's midnight!" she announced.

"What's your name, sir?"

"1864, odd," He's looking around, licking his finger, tasting the air, doing the strangest things. "Well, I'm the Doctor. Hello!" He seemed so enthusiastic, so vibrant, that Rose seemed to absorb some of his energy, and became slightly more spruce. "Well, I've crashed. That's not good, but I suppose I might be able to fix dear old Sexy again," He gestures to the smoking blue box behind him.

"What are you doing? Sexy?" she wondered aloud with a bemused expression upon her face.

"Well... That's not such a good name in this time, now is it? Are you cold, Rose? A bit chilly, isn't it?" Then Rose did the most un-Rose thing that she could have done at that moment. She invited him in.

"What's a police public call box, and how could it have crashed? It's a box!" Rose stepped through the door and let the Doctor in, closing the door afterwards.

Carefully, she lit an oil lamp and used it to light all the other lamps in the living room. Putting the kettle on, she made two cups of tea.

"Well, Police Boxes were things where criminals were put in to be contained for a while. Then again, that would be in the future, wouldn't it?" He accepted the cup of tea gratefully, warming his hands against it.

"In the future? Who _are_ you?" She sat down across from him, holding her cup of tea.

That was when she realized what he was wearing. Nothing but a pair of trousers and a light, threadbare shirt. "Thank you Rose. It's really been a pleasure, but I should get goi..." He started to snore gently. Rose giggled softly, and tried to rearrange him as comfortably as she could in the armchair that he was sitting in.

She went to grab a blanket and a pillow, laying the blanket gently on top of him, put the pillow below his head, and tucked him in as best she could. Blowing out the lights, she went to her room, jut across the hall.

"Goodnight Doctor," she whispered, blowing out her lamp as well.

* * *

Rose woke up early in the morning, and walked into the kitchen through the living room. She nearly screamed when she saw a man sprawled on the floor, hugging the blanket like a teddy bear. Then she remembered who the Doctor was, and gently stepped around him. She crossed over to the kitchen, putting some tea on, and frying some bacon and scrambling a few eggs. and woke him up.

"Doctor, it's time to wake up,"

"Agh..." He pulled a pillow over his head. "Rose Tyler, I swear that you will be the death of me," Rose looked at him oddly.  
"It's Rose Mantry, and you have only known me for a few hours! Dear Doctor, how could you say that?" She looked mildly offended.  
"Oh dear! I am sorry, Rose... My other friend, Rose Tyler, she was... Well, she left. She's in a better place now," He then wandered off to the smell of fresh bacon and eggs. "Oh, that does smell good!"

She walked in the kitchen, head down and sat in her chair, upset, a few tears rolled down her eyes.

"Rose? Rose, are you alright?"

"It's just that I was mildly offended," she said, avoiding his sympathetic gaze.

"Was it my going into the kitchen? I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was intruding. I'll leave now if you want," He looked down, and started to stand up.

"No, no, please sit down. It was what you said, that I would be the death of you,"

"You went to sleep on the armchair, and I brought you a blanket," Rose murmured, suddenly remembering. The Doctor looked a bit bemused at the sudden comment, but thanked her.

"Ah! Thank you for that! But what you said earlier, I thought you knew I was talking to someone else,"

"Who is Rose Tyler?" Rose Mantry was curious to who she was and how important she was to the Doctor. "Is she d-," She brought herself to say the words. "Is she dead?"

"She's... A friend. A very good friend. And I never got to tell her how much... No. No. She's not dead, just somewhere where she should be happy,"

"Oh, sorry! It just sounded like..." Her voice trailed off, and she had her key in her hand, unconsciously fondling it.

"What's that you've got there! That key in your hand! Where did you get that key?" The Doctor recognized it. The little nick just on the side of the round hole. That was Rose Tyler's key. So what did Rose have to do with Rose?

"Erm... It's my key. I've had it ever since I started having these strange dreams..." she looked at it and gave it to the Doctor.

"Tell me, what dreams?" He looked at her with slightly narrowed eyes. "Where did you get this?"

"Ah," she looked at the doctor, "It all started here, about a year ago, everything that happened ever since you came happened in my dreams. You took me on adventures and scanned me. You said i was a... a..." She struggles to find the word. "Time Lord?" She poured two cups of tea, one for her, and one for the Doctor.

"You are? What? What? You- What?" He started panicking, making strange gestures, and then pulled her into his blue box. Rose didn't even have time to pick up her teacup to have a sip, she was pulled along too quickly. He didn't mention how they were going to fit in the tiny box.

"What?" The minute she steps in, she doesn't know what to say. All she could do was spin round in excitement, laughing. "It's smaller on the outside!" She giggled again. "Is it dimensionally transcendental?"

"How do you know that?" He's spinning around what appears to be a console, and he's giggling like a child at Christmas. Even though the console is smoking slightly, she (it just seemed like a she, not an it) seemed to hum with life. The Doctor pulled a glass thing towards him, circles flashing wildly upon it. He looked at it, at her, back at it, and started laughing with glee

"You are!"

He started guffawing, and just couldn't seem to stop.

Rose remembered her planet for a moment, just a moment. Stumbling back with her hand on her forehead, she remembered her burning TARDIS and collapsed.

When the Doctor managed to get her, she was already half conscious again. When he touched her, he felt an energy, the type of energy... No. Maybe! The only type of energy generated by a Time Lord. He searched her body, looking for a pendant, or anything. He was looking for a watch, a fob watch, a... a... Where was it?

"What are you looking for, Doctor?"

"The... Where! You know what it is!"

"You don't remember me,"

"No!"

"Wait,"

"You... You... Are you... No! No! You're...?"

"Here, is this it?" She handed a pendant to the Doctor. Gallifreyan symbols covered it, spelling out her name, long lost.

"Yes!" He took it from her, eager to open it. "Should I?" He asked her, longing, praying to become one of the Time Lords, not the last of them.

"Yes," She inhaled deeply and groaned. Was she dying?

He pushed the little nubbin on the top of the watch, and golden, beautiful energy flowed out into Rose. The Doctor didn't even know whether to keep calling her Rose or her Gallifreyan name. She sighed.

The energy glowed, flowing into her eyes. She lay on the floor, unconscious for a while. Unable to do anything other than make her comfortable, the Doctor lifted her into a nearby bed seven corridors away.

* * *

The minute Rose opened her eyes, the Doctor glanced at her. "Hello. You're back. Do you remember?" He smiles, a bittersweet moment, and looks down. "That time when we were together; it was good, wasn't it? Being young, being carefree," His voice trails off.

"Yes, I remember," She gestured for the Doctor to come sit down on her bed.

"We used to sit on Solitude, watching the third sun set. The trees would whisper to us, and we would just sit there, just watching. That was good, yes?" He smiles again, and clasps her hand, squeezing gently.

"Solace was for those precious days, the days when the forests would turn gold, soaking in all that sunlight. Solace was taller than Solitude, but it was always the more beautiful because the forests would turn gold, amber, and then fade to the colors of darker and darker whiskey. Beautiful. Just like you,"

"Doctor, the rest of those dreams said the TARDIS would... " She gulped, afraid to tell him

"What? Mine or yours? What did she say? I could put in a word," He's scrabbling for words, putting together random words to form odd sentences, all meant to help her feel better, but he could see that she was at her breaking point. He didn't push further.

"Yours..." she said. "Mine burned,"

"What?! Tell me what she said!" His voice was getting urgent, but not to the point of angry.

"Yours... will die... We'll land somewhere and the power will go out," she said gulping for air. She was too tired, but had to warn him. Warn him of It...

"What? My TARDIS... She'll go where? When? Just... Oh dear," He pulled her close and held her tight. He honestly did not know what to do. She was already unconscious again. There was nothing that the Doctor could do. Only pray for Rose.

* * *

**Author's Note: Soooo how was it? Whoever liked it, raise their pointer finger! Now move your mouse down to the little box down there labeled "Review", and place a review! (Reviews are like food. They nourish me. FEED ME, PLEASE.) This was a really long chapter, and the next ones will probably be shorter. If you want shorter chapters but updated faster, tell me. Likewise, if you want a really long chapter like this one updated at longer intervals, tell me. **


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